SILENCE | ATEEZ

Prologue + Trailer

The world is ending.

Some would say it was a metaphor created to keep still faiths towards the unknown. They believe there are other sides of the world that are separated from reaching the eyesights of humanity. There was a saying that humanity was not pure enough to be able to access their ways in, but truth says that no one ever made their ways inside the unknown part of this sacred land human living in.

They believe if they hold onto the faith of the unknown strong enough, it will eventually grant them an access out from the catastrophe of the world.

The world that humanity has known now, is seemingly reaching to its end and everyone is looking for a sole answer on how to reach salvation. Interpretations after interpretations of old manuscripts, prayers after prayers of wanting to be saved, countless machines and human beings were used to uncover the hidden truth of the unknown. An access to the after world rather seems an impeccable choice, but truth to be told, no one really wants to die.

Not when the technology was on its peak, not when all the euphoric amendments were about to be brought into the real world. Not when the world was just about to get a little more exciting than it used to be. For children, who had their eyes opened, giggling with joy as they were brought up to live in a better place.

Why save the youngsters? Why children ? What happens to the elderly who have seen most of the world changing right in front of their very eyes ? What happens to the hardworking people that desperately want to survive the worst nightmare that had enveloped this world?

It's because they are special. Children, teenagers, young adults. Those who are young have more chances and possibilities to survive.

Science is no longer considered useful to the outbreak.

Technology seems to have found its way down the drain. A deadly end found its way to the society, where a nightmare has been spreading towards living organisms. A virus, an unknown disease that spreads through like wildfire, decreasing the population of people living in this very world. No scientific studies could define what was wrong and what was right. Countless experiments conducted found the same dead end.

No twist turns. No left and right. No right or wrong.

Death is what awaits them. If a cure could not be found, sooner or later, the virus will inhibit the population of humans. Infections take place, slowly, but deadly. It starts with a sudden flash of blurry visions taking over sights, and slowly it crawls into something that brews inside the bloodstream, as if the blood boils the moment the virus reaches its vessels.

Adrenaline rushes through their arteries and veins, before the blood begins to overflow inside it. Regulations of blood couldn't be controlled as the deadly disease begins to spread inside them. Suddenly, you can see all of their organs start to look distorted, as it swells with blood uncontrollably. Their eyes will turn crimson red like the colour of their own blood, each time growing darker than the shade of black. You can hear them scream, writhing in so much pain as the disease spreads through, leaving no place for their lungs to breathe air as it was all clogged with blood clots that has been forming every second their heart pumps.

The pain? One can no longer live to say how much pain they had gone through as they were waiting for the arrival of their deaths.

The deafening screams and repeated prayers already seem a bit too familiar to Seonghwa's ears to the point he does not feel anything at all. He had watched them begging for their lives, desperately wanting to hang on to the thin thread of life.

Seonghwa had watched his own mother die, succumbing to the virus.

He couldn't be bothered to care about others' screams, it was all nothing compared to what he had heard coming from the person he loved and cherished his whole life. She was everything to him, the only thing that made sense in his world. Seonghwa would always go on and on, telling his mother how he couldn't live without her by his side. Now it seems that his words bit his tongue, he was left alone in this terror of the world without anyone for him to call as "mother".

Seonghwa's eyes trails all of the equipment in front of him. He is wearing his usual dark blue scrubs, topping it off with a white lab coat, one that is necessary to permit an entry into the laboratory. An identification card hangs loose on his neck, displaying his name and a roll number. He moves towards an open table, a body on top of it, laying flat, unmoved. He moves to wear gloves that hug his hands and fingers just as nicely, before putting on his mask.

The body laid on the table is not as per usual cadaver, but it was a person who had been infected. He uses his fingers and palpates a few of the organs that are already way too far bloated that it is visible externally. A quite amount of liquid, which he can already confirm that it was all blood and blood clots. His hand then reaches the cadaver's eyelids, pushing it up slowly. As expected, it was all reddish black, reflecting horror this person had gone through before his death call came.

"Scalpel."

Seonghwa takes the small sharp metal blade from the lab assistant and starts to make a transverse incision across the cadaver's abdomen. After a few layers of fat, the internal organs start to appear, all swollen with enormous amounts of liquid. The sight makes Seonghwa want to vomit, but instead he reaches out to make another incision and pulls the organs out from the abdominal cavity one by one. Liver, stomach, small intestines, large intestines, all are swollen red. He places the organs on the metal plate across the table to be taken to another lab for him to assess later.

Satisfied with his job, he takes off his gloves and moves to wash his hands before taking off the mask. It's a bit suffocating in the operating room and he didn't like spending too much time in it unless necessary. He was ready to leave the room until he saw the lab assistant was still standing beside the cadaver's table, looking clueless.

"You can close for me, Hongjoong. If you are done, just ring the cadaver supply department, they'll take care of the rest." Seonghwa indicates, before he disappears behind the glass door of the operating room, leaving his lab assistant behind alone.

Hongjoong doesn't get to argue, since he was his boss. He scratches his head before wearing a pair of gloves himself and starts to sew the cadaver up again. His mind is cloudy, he couldn't help but wonder, what would happen to this body. What would happen to his family, what would happen if he hadn't been infected.

What would happen if this body turns out to be just another wasted opportunity to find a cure ?

He shakes his head, pushing away those ridiculous thoughts as he speeds himself to get the work done, realising that he's the only one left in the room, with a dead body on top of it. Not that he's scared of anything, but being in the same room as the one who died of the virus, anything could happen if precautions were not taken.

"How did I even end up here ?" He suddenly asks himself, unintentionally voicing it out loud. Hongjoong stops, as something registers into his head. His face looks troubled, as if the thing that popped up in his mind had blocked him from certain emotions. His hands stayed still, wondering in his thoughts.

"How?" He couldn't even bring himself to answer the question he brought upon himself. Hongjoong can't even remember what his life was before the pandemic started. Before this virus started to mutate inside of people, destroying their future and health. He doesn't remember who exactly he was, because all he remembered was him waking up in a hospital room, one that looks foreign to his eyes, with Seonghwa looking at him with an expression that was hard for him to comprehend.

Hongjoong takes off his gloves and throws it inside that specific bin and steps on the pedal that turns on the faucet. Water rushes in, wetting his hands as he is still lost in the trail of his thoughts. He stays there for a while, letting the water soak his hands. Water rolls down until his elbow, where a few stretched old black scars linger on it.

At least I'm still alive.